Local

COLUMBIA – The S.C. Department of Transportation has launched a website to track its progress on the 10-year plan for restoring the condition of South Carolina’s highway system after 30 years of underfunding.

The website will feature project lists for three of the four major programs that comprise the plan:

• Highway safety – SCDOT will address the “worst of the worst” roads, in terms of highway safety, by improving 100 miles per year with a plan to make these roads safer in 10-mile segments.

With two music stages, a variety of food trucks and a later evening end time, organizers of the Indian Land Fall Festival are making changes to the long-standing Panhandle event to make it a full day of activity.

The Oct. 28 event has been moved to the Indian Land school campus from the CrossRidge Center in an effort to include five zones of activities, as well as two entertainment stages and the car show.

The measure that allows Sunday off-premises alcohol sales in Lancaster County may be legally invalid, and continuing those sales might require another referendum by county voters.

As written, the referendum that passed in 2016 could expire June 30, 2018.

“This has become a convoluted thing and a misrepresentation of the law,” said Dean Faile, president of Lancaster County Chamber of Commerce. “I can tell you we are siding with our businesses and the 65 percent of voters who approved Sunday alcohol sales here last year.”

“What kind of dog is that?” I asked my cousin that question in amazement as I noticed his dog’s extraordinary ability to flush rabbits through the thickets and how it bayed on the trail.
I then learned about a re-discovered type of primitive dog roaming the Southeastern United States, masquerading as an everyday stray.

On the night of Aug. 12, Phillip Pegram and his family noticed that cars were slowing in front of their house. They found an adult barred owl lying in the middle of the road.
“She was beautiful,” Pegram recalls. “She looked fine. We couldn’t see any blood or any obvious signs of damage.”
But they knew something was wrong, because she didn’t try to fly away from them. Perhaps a car had hit her in mid-flight.

The S.C. Widows Sons Masonic Riders Association, with the help of the Black Sheep Jeep Club, delivered 1,843 pounds of food to HOPE in Lancaster on Aug. 26 with its sixth-annual charity drive.
The ride included stops at Barron Masonic Lodge in Heath Springs, Camp Creek, Flat Rock, Indian Land, Jackson, Macedonia in Jefferson and Wannamaker masonic lodges.
Supporters also raised $10,158 through an auction and raffled off several door prizes donated by local businesses that stepped up to help. There was also a cake auction and a hot dog lunch with all the trimmings.

The county will front Rich Hill Volunteer Fire Department $250,000 from the General Fund so that planned upgrades at the department’s rural fire station can move ahead.
County council unanimously approved the expenditure Monday night.
“This is a good way for us to show our support of the fire service,” said Lancaster County Councilman Larry Honeycutt, noting that the money is ultimately coming from the resale of 18 used fire trucks owned by the county.